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Kurt Schwenk, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, views reptile and amphibian tongues as his ‘Darwin’s finches’. And, due to recent advances in high-speed cameras, he’s currently in a golden age of discovery. This short from Science magazine pairs Schwenk’s passionate words on his field of study with some incredible in-the-lab footage detailing the many ways these creatures have evolved to stick to, grasp and pick up their prey with their tongues. In doing so, the piece highlights the diverging, sometimes peculiar paths evolution can take, as well as how lab research can be a deeply creative process too, and not just a strictly observational one.
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Biology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
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Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Why large language models are mysterious – even to their creators
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
24 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
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Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
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Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes